I just finished watching The Rock for about the eighth time and so isn’t the most original movie in the world but it has an all-star cast composed of Nicolas Cage, Ed Harris, David Morris, Michael Biehn, and William Forsythe and of course Sean Connery. After turning in his tuxedo and Aston Martin following Diamonds Are Forever, Connery has gone back into the loop as John Mason though Sean Connery plays his character exactly as he might portray a sixty year old version of the world famous British spy.
The story is that of a group of ex-Marines led by battle hardened hero, Brigadier General Frank X. Hummel (Ed Harris). They have stolen fifteen VX poison gas rockets from a marine base and are threatening to launch strike on the San Francisco Bay area if their demands aren't met. They're also holding 81 civilian’s hostage in the cell block. The plan is pretty clichéd you might think however the mercenaries’ demands are not,
which is to have $100 million dollars transferred into a bank account to be given to the families of the dead soldiers he served with. They are not the typical baddies that you see in every other film, they are revealed in such a way that we can sympathize with the reason behind their actions.
The government is not prepared to hand over the money so they plan a raid on Alcatraz with a strike force lead by Cmdr. Anderson (Michael Biehn). Stanley Goodspeed (Nicholas Cage) is called in as FBI chemical weapons expert to disarm the rockets but they still need to get into Alcatraz. Enter John Mason (Sean Connery) a former British S.A.S. officer who knows so many of the U.S. Governments secrets, they've kept him illegally imprisoned for the last thirty years. Soon after being imprisoned in Alcatraz, he was able to escape using the maze of tunnels underneath the prison. The team of FBI specialists know that Mason may be the only guide to get into Alcatraz and free the hostages. John Mason is unwilling to take on the mission, but when promised his freedom agrees to go ahead with the mission.
This movie is 2 hours, 15 minutes which is a little long they have a couple of completely pointless sub-plots most notably when John Mason steals a jeep and hurtles around San Francisco where as it might be a good car chase does not add anything to the plot it certainty adds to the action it almost non-stop throughout the movie. It's typical Jerry Bruckheimer film, including plenty of action, excellent actors but a truly unbelievable storyline.
Despite my problems with some of the plot I found this movie really enjoyable. If you love action, then you'll probably love this movie. If seeing serious movies with a well constructed plot is more your style, you might want to leave The Rock at the store.
Cast Sean Connery - John Patrick Mason Nicolas Cage - Dr. Stanley Goodspeed Ed Harris - Brig. Gen. Francis X. Hummel John Spencer - FBI Director James Womack David Morse - Maj. Tom Baxter William Forsythe - Special Agent Ernest Paxton Michael Biehn - Cmdr. Anderson
Casting Connery was a perfect move by the Director, Michael Bay and Producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer. Connery proves in this movie that he has lost none of his charisma with age, the expert actor mixes humour and action, just like he did in Bond.
As for Cage he played the role of Super freak/Hero brilliantly like he acts every thing else. I became a fan of him because of this movie and ended up seeing a lot of his films that came after this simply because he was in it. Any one who has read my Face Off review will know my opinion on him and to be honest I think he could well be the best actor to ever walk on the face of the earth.
Ed Harris portrays a surprisingly sympathetic bad guy Brigadier General Frank Hummel. The character he plays however well scripted and well intentioned Brigadier General Frank X. Hummel motives are well intentioned however he still to me must be the stupidest around because as it is said so well in the film by John Mason ‘‘How do you cherish the memory of the dead by killing another million?’’, I’m sure Hummel could of used all three of his brain cells and come up with a much more peaceful means of raising $100 million with fifteen VX poison gas rockets.
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Production Year: 2002 - Action/Adventure - Director: Vincenzo Natali - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring:Lucy Liu, David Hewlett, Anne Marie Scheffler, Joseph Scoren, Matthew Sharp, Jeremy Northam
Production Year: 1977 - Action/Adventure - Director: Clint Eastwood - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring:Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Pat Hingle, William Prince, Bill McKinney
Action/Adventure - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring:Jack Ging, Marla Heasley, Lance Legault, Melinda Culea, Mr T, Dwight Schultz, Dirk Benedict, George Peppard, Carl Franklin
Production Year: 1964 - Action/Adventure - Director: Cyril Endfield - Original Language: English - Classification: Parental Guidance - Starring:Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, Ulla Jacobsson, James Booth, Michael Caine, Nigel Green
Advantages: A thoroughly well-executed “Boy’s Own” movie with plenty of action.... Disadvantages: Ultimately very silly, a little derivative and of course, the logic is occasionally flawed....
the_grouch 28.05.2001 (28.05.2001)
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Review of The Rock DVD
Aug 30th, 2004
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